Schools have a right to display a crucifix on classroom walls,
European human rights judges ruled yesterday in a decision hailed as a
‘turning point for religious liberty’.

They gave schools in Italy the go-ahead to keep their Roman Catholic
symbols on display and declared that Christian imagery in class does not
harm non-Christian pupils.

The landmark ruling in the Strasbourg court – overturning its previous decision – will apply across Europe.

The crucifix has long hung in classrooms across Italy, with generations growing up to the sight of this religious symbol

But it also appeared to set European human rights law at odds with British courts.

In a British test case last year, Christian nurse Shirley Chaplin was denied the right to wear her crucifix on an NHS ward. An employment tribunal said wearing the crucifix was not a ‘mandatory requirement’ of her faith.

The crucifix case also raised new questions over the legitimacy of the Strasbourg court and the way it applies the European Convention on Human Rights to Britain and its other 46 member countries. Italy’s government won the case in Strasbourg after maintaining that the presence of crucifixes in state school classrooms was an important tradition that should be continued.

It also said that Christian values formed the foundation of democracy and western civilisation.

European judges said the practice was within Italy’s ‘margin of appreciation’ – legal jargon for allowing a country flexibility to follow its own tradition.

However no margin of appreciation has been allowed to the British government in the case of votes for prisoners.

Strasbourg judges have provoked a constitutional crisis by declaring that Britain must enfranchise convicted prisoners, even though prisoners in this country have been stripped of the vote for centuries and Parliament has repeatedly endorsed the practice.

Yesterday’s decision clashes with the reasoning of British judges in a series of cases involving Christians over the past year. A counsellor was told he had no right to refuse to give sex advice to a gay couple, and hoteliers Peter and Hazelmary Bull were forced to pay compensation for turning away a gay couple on the grounds that they let double rooms to only married couples.

Mike Judge, of the Christian Institute think-tank, said: ‘I hope that British courts follow this Strasbourg ruling and that it becomes a turning point for religious liberty in this country.’